Pubdate: Sun, 03 Nov 2013
Source: Progress-Index, The (VA)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2271
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2274

CHANGES TO POT LAWS ON FAST TRACK

WASHINGTON (AP) - It took nearly 15 years after voters approved 
medical marijuana for it to become available in the District of 
Columbia, but the next major change to pot laws in the nation's 
capital is on the fast track.

The D.C. Council is poised to approve a bill that would decriminalize 
possession of small amounts of pot, and Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray 
announced last month that he supports it. He could sign the bill into 
law as early as January.

Some activists want the city to go further by legalizing, taxing and 
regulating marijuana as Colorado and Washington state do, and they're 
considering a ballot initiative if the council doesn't take that step.

It's a big change from a year ago, when there was no medical 
marijuana in the capital and elected officials weren't talking about 
relaxing recreational pot laws. Now, there are three tightly 
regulated marijuana dispensaries in the city, although there aren't 
many patients yet.

City leaders have long been cautious about pot, in part because 
Congress has the final say on what's legal in the district. But with 
17 states having some form of decriminalization and the Justice 
Department taking a hands-off approach to legalization in Colorado 
and Washington state.

"What the states do would not matter if there were serious interest 
in the subject" on Capitol Hill, said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a 
Democrat who represents the district in Congress.

The new sense of urgency has been fueled in part by two studies 
released this year that found large racial disparities in marijuana 
arrests in the city.

Blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested than whites in the 
district in 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union found, and 91 
percent of those arrested that year were black. About half of the 
city's 632,000 residents are African American.

Even with decriminalization, the district is not about to become a 
pot haven. Possession would still be barred on federal land, which 
encompasses more than 20 percent of the city.

And federal law enforcement officers-such as the U.S. Park Police or 
Capitol Police-can make arrests for violations of federal law on local property.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom